Allowing guns in our churches represents wrong-headed responseOne of the first contributions of the new Republican-dominated Arkansas Legislature apparently will be to open the doors of our churches to gun-toting worshippers. That is surely the ultimate oxymoron. At a time when a national debate rages over gun control in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., tragedy, Arkansas’ leaders advocate abolishing one control as an answer. The Senate Judiciary Committee last week unanimously passed Senate Bill 71, spons...

Hagel confirmation and saving basesSens. Mark Pryor and John Boozman want to save the 188th Fighter Wing. The Arkansas Air National Guard unit stationed at the Fort Smith Air National Guard Station faces a possible cut under the proposed National Defense Authorization Act. Soon, both Arkansas senators will have a chance to back up their support by opposing President Obama’s nomination of former Senator Chuck Hagel for Secretary of Defense. “Despite repeated requests, the Air Fo...

ObamatoryAmerican oratory is in sad shape. The winged phrase, the ringing call to action, the sad elegy — all of them are as endangered as Lindsay Lohan’s chances for an Oscar. This thought I had while sitting in my pickup truck on a cold day, parked outside a corner store in an undistinguished neighborhood, drinking coffee from a paper cup and listening to the inauguration speech of President Barack Obama, who is apparently the face I present to the w...

Declaration of collectivismOne of the least remarked upon aspects of President Obama’s inaugural speech was his attempt to co-opt the Founding Fathers’ Declaration of Independence to bolster his liberal-left agenda. Sure, the president quoted one of the most important sentences in world history: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Libe...

Thinking about legislature, fencing, City CouncilScatter shooting while wondering whatever happened to Jim Guy Tucker. The Arkansas Legislature is in session, as you all know. We, along with most other media outlets, publish stories most days on what they are up to in Little Rock. It isn’t always the sexiest news in the paper, but most of what they do is important. And it is important that you know what is happening. When we elected the people who represent us in the State House and Senate, ...

‘Stan the Man’ fans offer comments, experiencesMy column about Stan “The Man” Musial, the St. Louis Cardinals greatest baseball player who died last weekend, struck a chord with many readers, several of whom told me in person or by e-mail about their own experiences. Like so many others, they affirm that “The Man” was a great inspiration, more so in life even than in the sport he played so well. Jonesboro native Jim Pardew, who now lives in Fairfax Station, Va., recalled that going to St. ...

News Thoughts: Time for some dumb crimeRemember how you would do nearly anything to keep your parents from going to PTA meetings or school to visit with your teacher? An 11-year-old boy in the town of Xinzo de Limia, Spain, faked a kidnapping. According to the Guardian newspaper, the youth texted his father from his mobile phone that he had been kidnapped Monday morning. When his father, who happens to be a Spanish police officer, phoned back, the boy claimed he’d been snatched whi...

Stan the Man became face of St. Louis baseballFrom the moment I first saw Stan “The Man” Musial play, I fell in love with baseball, and I expect millions of St. Louis Cardinals fans can say something similar. After joining the Cardinals on Sept. 17, 1941, Musial became the face of St. Louis and its baseball team. We knew the day would come — he was, after all, 92 years old and suffering from Alzheimer’s — but his death Saturday still came too soon. It’s almost like losing a bit of your ch...

Seize the momentIt has been said that American people only have two speeds — panic and apathy. Most of us are either going at break-neck speed or wasting time on activities that don’t amount to a hill of beans. A good analogy is the man or woman who passes you on the highway, breaking the speed limit, and you see them an hour later sitting around doing absolutely nothing. It is in this context I would like to share a few thoughts that could help you use your ...

What is in a name?Many people remember the movie “Ben Hur” that came out in 1959, starring Charlton Heston. The tradition regarding how the name of the main character, and thus the movie, was derived is very interesting. Legend has it that the writer wanted to name the character after the most honored name in Judaism. So he approached some rabbis and asked them who that person might be. Their answer was very interesting, and not what one would expect. You would...

The second time aroundIt is hard to remember how much better things are in America today than they were four years ago when Barack Obama took the oath of office for the first time. Then, we were in the middle of two raging wars, one in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. Now, one of those wars is ending, the other is over, and the most hated and feared man in recent times, Osama bin Laden, is dead. Then, we were in the throes of an economy on a dizzying downward slide, th...

Stopping painful killing of unbornForty years ago, nine Supreme Court justices, appropriately dressed in black robes, delivered one of the most divisive rulings in modern history in a case styled Roe v. Wade. In effect, the justices fashioned a new constitutional right to an abortion from the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process clause. “To reach its result, the court necessarily has had to find within the scope of the Fourteenth Amendment a right that was apparently completely ...

The power of your mindI’ve already discussed the importance of a positive attitude and not subjecting yourself to negativity at a number of different levels as well as a guided visual imagery to help you see yourself resolving these negative situations. In this article I want to talk about progressive relaxation and auto-suggestion to help you reinforce your positive affirmations. The more focus you have on what you want to accomplish and the more embedded it is in...

Do gun control laws work?The gun control controversy is only the latest of many issues to be debated almost solely in terms of fixed preconceptions, with little or no examination of hard facts. Media discussions of gun control are dominated by two factors: the National Rifle Association and the Second Amendment. But the over-riding factual question is whether gun control laws actually reduce gun crimes in general or murder rates in particular. If, as gun control advoc...

Our best hope: The 10th AmendmentMost Americans agree that balancing the federal budget is important. For many, however, it’s not the issue that really stirs their passions and makes them march in the streets. Those — for and against — are abortion, gay marriage, marijuana legalization, school prayer, and gun control. Unfortunately, we can’t get what most of us want, a balanced budget, because so much of our focus is on trying to get what only half of us want. Fortunately, th...

Handing out congratulationsWe received the 2013 Arkansas High School Coaches Association (AHSCA) All-Star selections for football, volleyball, cheer and dance the other day, and I wanted to congratulate some folks and inquire about some others. Russellville’s Shannon Hocker will represent the Arkansas River Valley on the East volleyball All-Stars team. A big congrats to her, but I’ve got a couple of questions. How in the world can you not put Lady Cyclones head volleyba...

Study shows disparity between spending on athletics, academicsA new study compares athletic spending on college campuses to academic spending and finds there is quite a disparity. The study, issued Wednesday by the Delta Cost Project, shows that in 2010 public universities in the six most powerful NCAA conferences spent six to 12 times as much per athlete as on other students. Athletic boosters will say that’s a good thing. They provide much of the money creating the disparity. Principal researcher Donna...

Scatter shooting: Roads, a cousin and drainageScatter shooting while wondering what ever happened to Houston Nutt. n n n A Courier front-page story last week talked about how construction is beginning on Interstate 40 around Russellville where four bridges and several miles of roadway will be replaced and improved. That’s just more good news for the people of the Arkansas River Valley when it comes to roads. We’ve seen Russellville and the state complete a number of projects in the city i...

News Thoughts: Flawed charactersFinally, after more than a decade of denial, Lance Armstrong has admitted to doping while he rose through the cycling ranks to win seven straight Tour de France races. A national sports columnist wrote after watching Armstrong’s interview with Oprah Winfrey that the story that was too good to be true — cancer survivor returns to win one of sport’s most grueling events seven times in a row — turned out to be a farce. “This story was so perfect ...

It is always possibleOne of the most beautiful parts of the Episcopal Church Liturgy (worship service) is the celebration of Baptism. At this service, church emphasizes the transformation of a human being into the children of God. Not merely by the waters of Baptism one becomes the child of God, but by all the choices each and every person makes and how the community becomes part of it. The emphasis on the ceremony of Baptism becomes not an event in and by itself,...